BNSF Maxi III

[Sokramiketes]

Had some fun making the MTL BNSF Husky's into something slightly more prototypical than single unit Huskys...   I carved up the ends and rearranged some parts to make a fully articulated 5 unit set, and just need to find some suitable "B" "C" "D" "E" decals to finish it off.

[Nato]

  Mike , a nice conversion job.                                                                                                      Nate Goodman (Nato).

[shamoo737]

Nice work Mike. How about showing us how to do the conversion.

[Pray59]

Nice work Mike! As far as the decals go, I think Ztrack or ED Models sells some for the 5 unit spine car set that might work.

[Sokramiketes]

Thanks guys.

Shamoo-

Not much too it, but here's a clearer photo of the articulated joint.  I didn't have to add any material, just remove existing.  I left the bolster in tact on one side, and then left a tab on the other.  I drilled from the bottom through the truck pin holes first to locate the pins.  The pin is just a short piece of wire in a #60 hole into the plastic truck pin.  I rearranged the stock MTL pieces from there to move the steps, walkways, brake details etc.  I may etch some new steps for the articulated joints, as they should be another rung lower... or just bend a stirrup out of wire to put below the plastic piece.

[shamoo737]

Mike, I cut my first car today, and its not as hard as I though. By the way, the only person that has Maxi III decals is Tim Buerling, but he is in a job in New Orleans. We dont know when he will go back to his home in Atlanta.

[Sokramiketes]

Mike, I cut my first car today, and its not as hard as I though. By the way, the only person that has Maxi III decals is Tim Buerling, but he is in a job in New Orleans. We dont know when he will go back to his home in Atlanta.

Cool, take pictures!

I was looking for more container decals via google, the ones I'm using came from eBay from a company called Imageworks.  Anyway, google pointed me to Tim's site with lots of cool decals!  So I ordered a bunch, the started checking out the rest of the site.  That's when I found the note that he wasn't making decals anymore...  Ooops.  I sent him a few emails to figure out if he's going to refund my paypal payment but haven't heard back from him.  Guess I now know why.

[Bob Bufkin]

For those of you interested in container ships, the March issue of Sea Classics has an interesting article on the birth and use of these ships.

[shamoo737]

Mike, it doesnt look as good as yours, but it runs. ;D

[Sokramiketes]

Mike, it doesnt look as good as yours, but it runs. ;D

Now just repeat for 3 more joints!  I got bored after 2, and let the project sit for a few months before finally getting around to finishing it... 

Maybe you can link the Trainboard guys over here.

[Robbman]

Mike, it doesnt look as good as yours, but it runs. ;D

Now just repeat for 3 more joints!  I got bored after 2, and let the project sit for a few months before finally getting around to finishing it... 

Maybe you can link the Trainboard guys over here.

They're too busy counting the pad print hits on their MT passneger cars...

[Sokramiketes]

Mike, it doesnt look as good as yours, but it runs. ;D

Now just repeat for 3 more joints!  I got bored after 2, and let the project sit for a few months before finally getting around to finishing it... 

Maybe you can link the Trainboard guys over here.

They're too busy counting the pad print hits on their MT passneger cars...

Do they have to type in scientific notation yet?

[Robbman]

Just primes.

[BNSF Dash 9]

Somebody say Trainboard?  ???

Those Maxi III look great. Why not just buy the FR brass set? I think they look fantastic as well and run great with some AZL wheelsets. (Did he say AZL wheelsets on the FR Maxi III set?) YES!  ;D

[Sokramiketes]

Somebody say Trainboard?  ???

Those Maxi III look great. Why not just buy the FR brass set? I think they look fantastic as well and run great with some AZL wheelsets. (Did he say AZL wheelsets on the FR Maxi III set?) YES!  ;D

I know the built-ups are pretty pricey, but are the kits reasonable?  I had picked up a couple of the MTL cars before doing the research (always dangerous...) so I was trying to recover the sunk cost on these.  Needless to say I won't be getting anymore.

I finally got a pair of SD75i's and was running a stack train around a loop this weekend...  Are these MTL containers ungodly oversized also??  They tower above the engines, and when compared to the MCZ 53' containers, which are supposed to be hicube as is, they're taller. I was trying to ignore the old style design, but the dimensions appear to be way off...

Seriously, I spent a lot of time decalling 24 MTL containers and now I'm ready to put them in the blender.